1
00:00:01,516 --> 00:00:03,940
Hello and welcome back to our study of the Dhammapada.

2
00:00:05,583 --> 00:00:11,092
Tonight we go on to verse number 48, which reads as follows.

3
00:00:14,197 --> 00:00:27,118
Which means,

4
00:00:30,912 --> 00:00:55,502
Just as one who is picking flowers, with a distracted mind, wasting their time picking flowers, so too a person goes to death, so too the human beings go to death, never being satisfied by sensual desires.

5
00:00:57,845 --> 00:01:21,760
meaning the ender or death takes them away under its power or they go under the power of death never being satisfied with sensual pleasures just like a person distracted by picking flowers

6
00:01:23,562 --> 00:01:26,206
This is similar to 47, if you've been keeping up.

7
00:01:26,486 --> 00:01:37,763
In 47, we had just as a sleeping village is carried away by a great flood.

8
00:01:39,406 --> 00:01:42,951
So too, one is carried away by death, just like someone who's picking flowers.

9
00:01:43,332 --> 00:01:45,194
The same beginning.

10
00:01:45,895 --> 00:01:46,937
So it's a similar verse.

11
00:01:48,976 --> 00:02:00,009
These are not particularly inspiring to, for most of us, it sounds kind of like a negative teaching that we're talking about.

12
00:02:01,211 --> 00:02:05,896
Anyway, we'll go over it and we'll try to make it inspiring.

13
00:02:06,577 --> 00:02:13,906
Hopefully it will inspire us to find something other than just sensual pleasure.

14
00:02:15,808 --> 00:02:16,789
So, but first the story.

15
00:02:17,444 --> 00:02:20,669
This is a story that I like to tell often.

16
00:02:21,030 --> 00:02:33,551
It's another one of these angel stories, so if you're not into supernatural things or things that seem supernatural in the sense that we can't see them and they seem to be outside of the real world.

17
00:02:36,076 --> 00:02:37,278
So maybe a word on that first.

18
00:02:37,338 --> 00:02:40,363
The real world is an interesting thing.

19
00:02:42,183 --> 00:02:50,261
The idea of angels existing, I mean, I don't know that angels exist, but I get the feeling they probably do.

20
00:02:52,666 --> 00:02:55,973
But there's nothing to that, right?

21
00:02:57,809 --> 00:03:03,157
the idea that they couldn't exist because they're outside of objective reality.

22
00:03:03,738 --> 00:03:07,163
It's important to touch on it briefly.

23
00:03:07,203 --> 00:03:15,396
I don't want to make this a metaphysical talk or talk on metaphysics, but

24
00:03:15,376 --> 00:03:17,059
We look around and we don't see angels.

25
00:03:17,159 --> 00:03:18,422
We see the hard floor.

26
00:03:18,442 --> 00:03:20,787
We feel the hard floor.

27
00:03:20,827 --> 00:03:23,111
We see light.

28
00:03:24,013 --> 00:03:35,275
We see human beings and we see animals and so we think, well, even with our strongest detecting instruments, we can't see angels.

29
00:03:36,858 --> 00:03:47,357
And so we come to think that the world is nothing more than a physical course, place or sphere of existence.

30
00:03:49,970 --> 00:04:05,116
But the idea of the existence of angels, so it seems that the immediate conclusion is that if there are angels, gods or God, this creator God, then they must be outside of the observable universe or outside of the known universe.

31
00:04:06,238 --> 00:04:12,349
They must be undetectable and therefore the same as non-existent.

32
00:04:15,856 --> 00:04:18,907
But in Buddhism we don't look at reality from that point of view.

33
00:04:18,947 --> 00:04:27,216
We don't jump to the conclusion that this three-dimensional reality is actually out there.

34
00:04:29,896 --> 00:04:49,238
we see reality as beginning from experience so here if you look you know you have seeing you have hearing if you smell if you taste experiences arise this is how we understand as the basis of reality and so the idea of

35
00:04:52,475 --> 00:04:57,403
experiences or beings that experience things in a different way from this.

36
00:05:00,007 --> 00:05:15,411
It's not just speculation, it accords with the observation of our own reality when you sit in meditation and you look in quite detail at the arising and ceasing phenomena.

37
00:05:17,905 --> 00:05:28,519
you start to get an idea of the depth or the breadth of possibility in regards to experience.

38
00:05:31,243 --> 00:05:33,846
Some people, when they're meditating, they have out-of-body experiences.

39
00:05:33,927 --> 00:05:37,812
Some people hear things very far away or enter into mystical states.

40
00:05:38,132 --> 00:05:45,482
If you listen to people who have these meditative journeys, they start to experience things in

41
00:05:45,462 --> 00:05:47,084
in very strange ways.

42
00:05:47,704 --> 00:06:02,079
People who are on drugs, for example, take hallucinogenic drugs or DMT or these crazy drugs that just experience things that are so different from our ordinary experience.

43
00:06:02,099 --> 00:06:03,160
You don't need drugs to do this.

44
00:06:04,201 --> 00:06:10,508
Actually, meditation brings you to some very strange and exotic experiences and helps you to see

45
00:06:10,488 --> 00:06:14,374
That what we think of as reality, this physical reality, is only conventional.

46
00:06:15,016 --> 00:06:18,321
It's only because we're so stuck in it, routinely stuck in it.

47
00:06:19,643 --> 00:06:25,774
So, we come to see that the step from a human to an angel is only a matter of degree.

48
00:06:25,834 --> 00:06:28,077
It's not categorically different.

49
00:06:28,097 --> 00:06:30,842
If this reality changes as our

50
00:06:30,822 --> 00:06:32,005
Experience changes.

51
00:06:32,425 --> 00:06:33,808
It can become that reality.

52
00:06:34,129 --> 00:06:38,699
So an angel and a human being, they can move back and forth.

53
00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:40,042
This is still just a theory.

54
00:06:40,062 --> 00:06:45,574
You have to experience it through meditation to agree or disagree with that.

55
00:06:46,752 --> 00:06:51,097
But it touches on the understanding of how could such a thing be possible.

56
00:06:51,137 --> 00:06:54,580
It's not like this universe and then angel universe.

57
00:06:55,842 --> 00:07:14,582
It's only a difference of degree or a difference of coarseness and refinement of consciousness or of experience.

58
00:07:16,132 --> 00:07:41,852
so I'm not trying to prove that angels exist or even hint at the proof of it but try to help to understand what is an angel it's just another being or it's even us we can shift in that direction and to some extent you can feel this even in a human physical material sense

59
00:07:41,832 --> 00:07:57,208
You can feel that when you engage in unwholesome activities, if you're meditating, if you're sensitive enough, you can feel how sensual lust, how anger and hatred, how these things

60
00:07:57,188 --> 00:08:16,351
really actually drag you down and make you more coarse, make you more, I would say, in tune in some sense with the coarse material world, more sensitive to noises, more sensitive to pain, more sensitive to conflict.

61
00:08:17,172 --> 00:08:19,635
You become dragged down into

62
00:08:19,615 --> 00:08:22,343
the world of pain, the world of suffering.

63
00:08:23,606 --> 00:08:34,637
On the other hand if you engage in wholesome activities, people who engage in charity, in generosity, in morality, in meditation, in helping other people,

64
00:08:34,617 --> 00:08:43,627
in sharing with other people, in being grateful and respectful, find themselves lighter, feel more refined.

65
00:08:44,628 --> 00:08:48,112
And their whole experience of reality changes.

66
00:08:48,232 --> 00:08:49,934
This is on a very small degree.

67
00:08:50,654 --> 00:08:55,560
So it's not yet proof of anything particular, but it gives you an idea of what we're talking about.

68
00:08:55,600 --> 00:09:00,405
So what we mean by angels is just a being who's gone to that degree.

69
00:09:00,385 --> 00:09:27,625
and at the shedding of this human body the next wave of existence is on another level on a different level as opposed to someone with a course experience at the shedding of this body will go to a course experience so some idea about angels anyway that's not the story that's the boring part now it gets interesting so the story goes

70
00:09:30,524 --> 00:09:42,467
I can't remember where the story starts, but the story goes that there was an angel up in heaven, two angels up in heaven, a male angel and a female angel.

71
00:09:43,309 --> 00:09:44,371
And they were husband and wife.

72
00:09:45,814 --> 00:09:51,064
And there were so many angels.

73
00:09:51,736 --> 00:09:56,003
playing basically, enjoying themselves in heavenly parks.

74
00:09:56,063 --> 00:09:58,307
In heaven you don't have to go to school, you see.

75
00:09:59,509 --> 00:10:00,490
You just play all day.

76
00:10:01,572 --> 00:10:04,156
You don't have to go to work, so you don't have to know how to work.

77
00:10:05,058 --> 00:10:11,008
You don't have to study math anymore, or science.

78
00:10:11,128 --> 00:10:16,356
All those years of study that you had to do to become doctors, useless up in heaven.

79
00:10:17,619 --> 00:10:18,520
Waste of time.

80
00:10:19,968 --> 00:10:22,193
But you have so much time up in heaven is the other thing.

81
00:10:22,534 --> 00:10:27,144
So you could, if you wanted to learn Pali, it would be very easy to learn Pali.

82
00:10:28,688 --> 00:10:30,492
We had this question from my teacher once.

83
00:10:33,980 --> 00:10:38,871
Because one teacher had said, one...

84
00:10:40,505 --> 00:11:07,137
theoretical how do you say a study teacher who's a book teacher monk he had said that in heaven everyone speaks Pali I think is what he said and we're trying to figure out how that could be possible you know if a person dies should they just suddenly know Pali or something and and so I was trying to see how is it really true that when you go to heaven everyone speaks Pali or something like that I can't I had some some strange idea like that

85
00:11:08,129 --> 00:11:12,038
And so we asked my teacher and he said, well they just learn Pali.

86
00:11:12,178 --> 00:11:14,262
They can speak whatever language they want.

87
00:11:14,583 --> 00:11:17,109
The question was, what language do they speak in heaven?

88
00:11:17,129 --> 00:11:19,334
He said, well kids learn how to speak in two years.

89
00:11:20,496 --> 00:11:21,919
In heaven you live for how many?

90
00:11:21,959 --> 00:11:23,382
Hundreds of thousands of years.

91
00:11:24,685 --> 00:11:26,830
So you can learn whatever you want in heaven.

92
00:11:28,312 --> 00:11:32,157
But sad to say, most people up in heaven don't spend much time learning.

93
00:11:32,777 --> 00:11:34,279
They just spend a lot of time playing.

94
00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:39,565
So even after hundreds of thousands of years, they still don't know anything.

95
00:11:39,585 --> 00:11:40,406
Because there's no need to.

96
00:11:40,847 --> 00:11:45,252
So they die kind of, often it sounds like they die kind of stupid.

97
00:11:45,873 --> 00:11:49,577
They die without really, just like a lot of human beings actually.

98
00:11:49,928 --> 00:11:52,353
We die not really having learned anything.

99
00:11:53,435 --> 00:11:55,580
Maybe we learned some math and some physics.

100
00:11:56,522 --> 00:11:59,187
But many people die without really understanding themselves.

101
00:12:00,590 --> 00:12:00,831
Right?

102
00:12:01,873 --> 00:12:03,596
Like how many knuckles do you have on one hand?

103
00:12:07,204 --> 00:12:08,166
Joints was the word.

104
00:12:08,186 --> 00:12:09,228
They're not knuckles, are they?

105
00:12:09,428 --> 00:12:10,671
Joints is the word.

106
00:12:14,161 --> 00:12:15,844
No, I keep telling this story.

107
00:12:15,884 --> 00:12:17,646
I heard it originally from this man.

108
00:12:17,706 --> 00:12:21,773
He said, this monk, that monk actually, the monk who's up on her mantelpiece.

109
00:12:23,876 --> 00:12:29,184
He said, so I asked this woman, 95 years old, how many joints do you have on one hand?

110
00:12:29,565 --> 00:12:30,106
She didn't know.

111
00:12:30,867 --> 00:12:34,853
He said, you've been around 95 years old, you still don't know how many joints you have on one hand.

112
00:12:34,833 --> 00:12:38,077
This is how well we know ourselves.

113
00:12:38,838 --> 00:12:39,559
It's an example.

114
00:12:41,000 --> 00:13:00,503
So it's not important to know how many joints you have on one hand, but it is important to know yourself, to understand yourself, to understand why we suffer, how our mind works, how we can use our minds to bring happiness or to bring suffering.

115
00:13:03,605 --> 00:13:18,070
how we can free ourselves from stress, from boredom, from dissatisfaction, from greed, from wanting, from conceit, from arrogance, from attachment to views and so on.

116
00:13:19,231 --> 00:13:21,554
from fear, from worry and doubt.

117
00:13:22,235 --> 00:13:23,938
How can we free ourselves from these things?

118
00:13:24,338 --> 00:13:25,039
It's just worth knowing.

119
00:13:26,301 --> 00:13:27,443
In heaven, they don't do much of that.

120
00:13:27,463 --> 00:13:28,885
They just spend all their time playing.

121
00:13:28,945 --> 00:13:29,726
So how do they play?

122
00:13:29,746 --> 00:13:36,055
Well, I think if I remember correctly, half the angels will stay at the bottom of the trees.

123
00:13:36,416 --> 00:13:37,898
I think I've told this part before.

124
00:13:37,878 --> 00:13:42,023
half the angels go up into the trees and they throw flowers down.

125
00:13:42,764 --> 00:13:43,866
They're singing and dancing.

126
00:13:43,906 --> 00:13:49,213
I don't know what their songs are, some kind of something like Sesame Street or something.

127
00:13:49,233 --> 00:13:50,915
You tell me how to get to heaven.

128
00:13:51,956 --> 00:13:57,423
And so they drop flowers, throw the flowers down and they play games like that.

129
00:14:00,267 --> 00:14:01,168
And

130
00:14:02,465 --> 00:14:11,195
So this woman, the wife angel, she's with them playing, and her husband's there playing as well, and this is in the morning.

131
00:14:11,215 --> 00:14:15,780
They go out in the morning after they eat, or I'm not sure how often they eat, but they eat.

132
00:14:16,260 --> 00:14:18,703
In heaven, when you eat food, it doesn't come out.

133
00:14:19,183 --> 00:14:20,144
You just use it all.

134
00:14:21,246 --> 00:14:25,590
You don't have to ever go to, you don't have to shower, you don't have to go to the toilet ever.

135
00:14:26,491 --> 00:14:30,075
You just eat what you want, whatever you want, however much you want.

136
00:14:30,496 --> 00:14:31,577
And the food there,

137
00:14:32,587 --> 00:14:40,077
There was Anuruddha once, got some heavenly cakes because he had made a vow never to hear the word Natti.

138
00:14:40,838 --> 00:14:42,180
You know the story of Anuruddha?

139
00:14:42,280 --> 00:14:47,306
Anuruddha, he made a vow when he gave food to a Pacheca Buddha, may I never hear the word Natti.

140
00:14:47,887 --> 00:14:50,390
And he never heard the word Natti until his past life.

141
00:14:51,392 --> 00:14:57,700
And then his mother sent him some cakes for all his friends because they were playing marbles, right?

142
00:14:58,000 --> 00:14:59,562
And he lost marbles.

143
00:15:00,403 --> 00:15:00,883
And they bet.

144
00:15:01,164 --> 00:15:02,005
And the bet is cakes.

145
00:15:02,205 --> 00:15:03,827
And so he asked his mother to bring some cakes.

146
00:15:03,947 --> 00:15:04,908
His mother sent some cakes.

147
00:15:04,948 --> 00:15:05,549
He lost again.

148
00:15:05,589 --> 00:15:06,710
Bring some cakes.

149
00:15:07,110 --> 00:15:08,172
Third time he lost again.

150
00:15:08,192 --> 00:15:09,353
No cakes.

151
00:15:10,534 --> 00:15:12,777
So she said, go and tell my son there aren't any cakes.

152
00:15:14,319 --> 00:15:16,541
And servants went and said, not tea.

153
00:15:19,625 --> 00:15:20,045
What do you mean?

154
00:15:20,205 --> 00:15:21,066
Well, you asked for cakes.

155
00:15:21,086 --> 00:15:22,708
And your mother said the answer was not tea.

156
00:15:24,832 --> 00:15:26,214
Well, then bring some na'ati cakes.

157
00:15:26,415 --> 00:15:26,915
I don't care.

158
00:15:26,976 --> 00:15:28,859
That's fine.

159
00:15:29,480 --> 00:15:30,882
Na'ati means there aren't any.

160
00:15:31,163 --> 00:15:33,066
Na'ati means there is.

161
00:15:33,106 --> 00:15:35,710
Na'ati means there are not.

162
00:15:36,051 --> 00:15:37,473
There is not.

163
00:15:37,493 --> 00:15:41,660
And so he went back and the mother said, he doesn't even know the word na'ati.

164
00:15:41,680 --> 00:15:42,762
He's never heard this word.

165
00:15:43,002 --> 00:15:44,545
He's always been given everything he wants.

166
00:15:44,565 --> 00:15:45,206
That's what it means.

167
00:15:45,807 --> 00:15:47,349
He never had to hear the word there aren't any.

168
00:15:47,389 --> 00:15:47,990
You want something?

169
00:15:48,191 --> 00:15:49,293
Okay, you can have whatever you want.

170
00:15:50,214 --> 00:15:50,755
All his life.

171
00:15:52,962 --> 00:15:54,726
I said, well, I have to teach my son a lesson.

172
00:15:54,766 --> 00:15:55,468
That's what she said.

173
00:15:55,508 --> 00:15:58,756
She said, I have to teach him what this Nati means.

174
00:15:58,816 --> 00:16:10,363
And so she took a silver, a gold platter and a gold lid and nothing inside and sent it with the servants and said, go and tell my son this is what Nati means.

175
00:16:12,318 --> 00:16:15,784
And up in heaven, the angels, heaven started shaking.

176
00:16:16,885 --> 00:16:20,772
And the angels looked down and they said, oh, this is not good.

177
00:16:21,553 --> 00:16:26,942
He made a vow never to hear the word Nati, or never to know what Nati means anyway.

178
00:16:28,264 --> 00:16:29,245
We can't let this happen.

179
00:16:30,928 --> 00:16:33,091
So they brought some angel food cake.

180
00:16:33,873 --> 00:16:38,460
Real, like no, not the stuff you buy in stores, but real angel cake.

181
00:16:39,976 --> 00:16:42,038
And they put it under the lid.

182
00:16:42,419 --> 00:16:43,039
And they sent it.

183
00:16:43,200 --> 00:16:45,562
And it went along to him.

184
00:16:46,844 --> 00:16:48,606
And when it got to Anuruddha, he opened it up.

185
00:16:48,666 --> 00:16:53,231
And whoa, the smell filled the whole playground.

186
00:16:54,792 --> 00:16:56,835
Just the smell alone was incredible.

187
00:16:56,855 --> 00:16:57,856
And then they tasted it.

188
00:16:57,896 --> 00:17:00,739
And they never tasted, of course, never tasted such a thing.

189
00:17:01,860 --> 00:17:02,821
And Anuruddha got up.

190
00:17:02,881 --> 00:17:04,363
And he got very angry.

191
00:17:06,908 --> 00:17:13,659
He stormed back home right in the middle of the game and he went, flung open the door and he looked at his mom and he said, you don't love me.

192
00:17:15,281 --> 00:17:17,505
And she was like, oh dear, now we have to talk about this.

193
00:17:17,605 --> 00:17:18,847
What do you mean, son?

194
00:17:20,970 --> 00:17:23,675
If you'd love me, you would have given me nutty cakes before today.

195
00:17:23,735 --> 00:17:26,519
You never gave me them before.

196
00:17:26,559 --> 00:17:28,662
That's proof that you didn't love me until today.

197
00:17:28,682 --> 00:17:30,165
How could you?

198
00:17:30,225 --> 00:17:34,131
He said, from now on, I will eat nothing but nutty cakes.

199
00:17:37,452 --> 00:17:39,675
And he stormed back to the playground.

200
00:17:40,617 --> 00:17:42,299
And she thought to herself, what could have happened?

201
00:17:42,319 --> 00:17:45,865
She thought, angels must have given him some special cakes.

202
00:17:46,746 --> 00:17:51,213
And so whenever he asked for nutty cakes, he would just send an empty tray just like that.

203
00:17:51,894 --> 00:17:53,857
And the angels would always fill it up with cakes.

204
00:17:56,621 --> 00:17:58,624
Unfortunately, that sort of thing doesn't happen to us.

205
00:17:59,866 --> 00:18:01,168
I've never tried it, actually.

206
00:18:02,490 --> 00:18:04,793
But I've heard the word, there isn't any, before.

207
00:18:06,865 --> 00:18:09,515
But that's how good the food is in heaven.

208
00:18:10,820 --> 00:18:17,143
Much better than McDonald's or Pizza Hut.

209
00:18:17,164 --> 00:18:18,107
Much healthier too.

210
00:18:20,922 --> 00:18:33,100
But okay, so in the morning they went out and started playing their games in the beautiful gardens, beautiful forests with no mosquitoes, no snow, unless they wanted it.

211
00:18:34,162 --> 00:18:35,925
And it would be snow like cotton candy.

212
00:18:35,945 --> 00:18:36,786
It would never be cold.

213
00:18:37,627 --> 00:18:41,593
It would just fall.

214
00:18:41,613 --> 00:18:42,955
It would be very tasty, you know.

215
00:18:44,257 --> 00:18:45,920
There's no suffering in heaven.

216
00:18:45,940 --> 00:18:47,402
Just pure bliss.

217
00:18:51,871 --> 00:18:53,814
And then this angel felt something strange.

218
00:18:55,676 --> 00:19:03,987
And she looked at her clothes, and her clothes were starting to fade, and the flowers in her dress, the garland of flowers, and the flowers in her hair.

219
00:19:04,007 --> 00:19:07,952
She looked down and saw they were wilting, dying.

220
00:19:09,034 --> 00:19:10,796
And she thought, this has never happened before.

221
00:19:10,876 --> 00:19:12,158
Flowers in heaven don't wilt.

222
00:19:14,332 --> 00:19:17,196
And I think she would feel the sweat in her armpits.

223
00:19:17,617 --> 00:19:18,958
That's never happened before.

224
00:19:18,998 --> 00:19:21,963
Those are the signs that an angel is dying.

225
00:19:23,304 --> 00:19:30,214
Because after thousands and thousands, hundreds of thousands of years, the angels die as well.

226
00:19:30,234 --> 00:19:32,938
And she died and disappeared from heaven.

227
00:19:34,860 --> 00:19:37,043
And everybody else was playing and didn't even notice.

228
00:19:37,384 --> 00:19:38,045
Too many people.

229
00:19:38,085 --> 00:19:39,287
You can't count everyone.

230
00:19:40,088 --> 00:19:41,790
Too many angels having too much fun.

231
00:19:43,846 --> 00:19:49,614
And she was born as a little girl in Savatthi, I think.

232
00:19:50,255 --> 00:19:51,978
Somewhere near the Buddha, probably Savatthi.

233
00:19:56,565 --> 00:20:04,637
And she remembered being up in heaven.

234
00:20:04,657 --> 00:20:05,498
Oh, and she cried.

235
00:20:07,861 --> 00:20:10,445
And she thought to herself, how can I get back to heaven?

236
00:20:10,465 --> 00:20:11,727
And she tried.

237
00:20:12,652 --> 00:20:17,368
She realized the only reason she went to heaven was because of all the good deeds she'd done in her past.

238
00:20:20,419 --> 00:20:24,332
And so she made a vow to do good deeds her whole life.

239
00:20:27,063 --> 00:20:29,085
to never get angry, to never get upset.

240
00:20:29,105 --> 00:20:31,668
And she vowed to help and to give.

241
00:20:33,070 --> 00:20:39,237
And so she was so kind and helpful to her parents and to her friends.

242
00:20:39,317 --> 00:20:49,369
And she was very careful never to speak in angry words, always thinking about her husband, she would say, my husband, thinking about my husband.

243
00:20:52,152 --> 00:20:53,814
And so quickly they got her married.

244
00:20:54,034 --> 00:20:55,416
They said, oh, well, she wants a husband.

245
00:20:58,990 --> 00:21:09,543
And when she was married, she would always give gifts and donate donations to the monks.

246
00:21:09,643 --> 00:21:14,028
When the monks came for alms, she would always put food in their bowl and dedicate it to her husband.

247
00:21:15,130 --> 00:21:18,554
And they thought, wow, here's someone who's really dedicated to her husband.

248
00:21:19,755 --> 00:21:22,358
This is pretty incredible.

249
00:21:22,378 --> 00:21:25,302
So they called her Patti Pujika.

250
00:21:25,282 --> 00:21:26,304
This was her name.

251
00:21:26,404 --> 00:21:27,987
Patti means husband.

252
00:21:28,608 --> 00:21:34,820
Pujika means one who worships or who reverences their husband.

253
00:21:35,641 --> 00:21:39,288
They thought, well, this is, wow, she's really paying respect to her husband.

254
00:21:39,328 --> 00:21:42,454
They thought it was the human husband.

255
00:21:45,260 --> 00:21:46,041
And

256
00:21:48,333 --> 00:21:53,162
So they thought, well, in Hinduism, that was what you're supposed to do.

257
00:21:53,322 --> 00:21:59,152
So they thought, well, she's really being a good Hindu wife, paying respect, worshipping her husband.

258
00:22:00,415 --> 00:22:08,008
It's not really particularly Buddhist to worship another person, but it's kind of interesting.

259
00:22:08,028 --> 00:22:10,813
So that's what they called her, the woman who worshipped her husband.

260
00:22:13,443 --> 00:22:20,960
And so her whole life she was very, she would always go and keep the eight precepts at the monastery and she practiced meditation.

261
00:22:22,042 --> 00:22:25,530
Lived her life to be 60, 70 years old.

262
00:22:27,153 --> 00:22:31,182
And she had children, I think two children or four children, many children.

263
00:22:33,558 --> 00:22:49,214
And then she was working so hard at the monastery one day that she fell over and had some kind of, I can't remember what the condition was, some indigestion maybe or maybe just a heart problem.

264
00:22:50,214 --> 00:22:51,256
And she fell over and died.

265
00:22:55,219 --> 00:22:58,823
And immediately she was born back up in heaven, in the same heaven.

266
00:22:59,967 --> 00:23:03,831
Only now, when she left, what time was it?

267
00:23:05,313 --> 00:23:07,175
When she died from heaven, what did I say?

268
00:23:08,937 --> 00:23:10,158
Was it morning?

269
00:23:11,880 --> 00:23:17,526
Yeah, after breakfast they went out to play and they were out there for an hour or two in the morning.

270
00:23:18,727 --> 00:23:20,589
When she got back, you know what time it was?

271
00:23:21,290 --> 00:23:24,253
It was afternoon, same day.

272
00:23:27,642 --> 00:23:31,827
And it was like, oh, the husband comes up and says, oh, I didn't see you.

273
00:23:31,867 --> 00:23:33,009
Where did you go this morning?

274
00:23:33,029 --> 00:23:35,372
I didn't see you all morning.

275
00:23:35,432 --> 00:23:41,720
And she said, I died.

276
00:23:41,780 --> 00:23:44,403
What are you talking about?

277
00:23:44,423 --> 00:23:45,104
It's true.

278
00:23:46,106 --> 00:23:46,947
Where were you reborn?

279
00:23:47,467 --> 00:23:48,549
In Savatthi on earth.

280
00:23:50,111 --> 00:23:51,052
How long did you live there?

281
00:23:51,072 --> 00:23:52,013
70 years.

282
00:23:54,963 --> 00:23:59,051
70 years on earth is a few hours in heaven, he said.

283
00:24:03,479 --> 00:24:04,200
And she said, yes.

284
00:24:04,281 --> 00:24:05,142
He said, wow.

285
00:24:06,204 --> 00:24:08,749
And he thought about it, and it really, really hit him.

286
00:24:08,789 --> 00:24:12,516
He realized, how short is the life of a human being?

287
00:24:15,044 --> 00:24:20,631
Wow, considering how short it is, they must really put effort into doing good deeds, no?

288
00:24:21,552 --> 00:24:36,952
Human beings must spend all their time running around helping each other and being kind and generous and keeping the precepts and giving alms and practicing meditation because they know that they're going to die in a few hours, very quickly.

289
00:24:36,972 --> 00:24:39,535
He said, right?

290
00:24:39,595 --> 00:24:42,739
What do you think?

291
00:24:43,900 --> 00:24:44,361
Do we?

292
00:24:45,322 --> 00:24:48,827
Do human beings, does the whole world spend all their time doing good deeds?

293
00:24:51,311 --> 00:24:51,572
Yeah.

294
00:24:52,373 --> 00:24:52,473
Yeah?

295
00:24:52,493 --> 00:24:55,758
We don't go to war or hurt each other or fight or argue?

296
00:24:56,800 --> 00:24:59,964
Are we thinking about heaven and doing good deeds to go to heaven?

297
00:25:02,048 --> 00:25:02,148
Yeah.

298
00:25:02,168 --> 00:25:02,428
Really?

299
00:25:05,172 --> 00:25:05,613
Not you.

300
00:25:05,633 --> 00:25:06,474
I know you are.

301
00:25:06,494 --> 00:25:10,080
But I mean people in general, humanity in general.

302
00:25:11,702 --> 00:25:12,844
She said no.

303
00:25:13,465 --> 00:25:17,590
No, they're acting like they have millions of years to live.

304
00:25:17,630 --> 00:25:19,112
They're acting like angels.

305
00:25:19,312 --> 00:25:20,253
They act just like us.

306
00:25:20,413 --> 00:25:22,295
They think they have all this time to live.

307
00:25:24,378 --> 00:25:27,261
She said, they don't spend any time, hardly any time doing good deeds.

308
00:25:27,381 --> 00:25:28,543
It's all, what can I get?

309
00:25:28,583 --> 00:25:29,484
How can I get it?

310
00:25:29,504 --> 00:25:33,288
Once I got it, how can I get more of it?

311
00:25:36,011 --> 00:25:37,313
Never satisfied.

312
00:25:40,178 --> 00:25:41,399
I've got a Nintendo.

313
00:25:41,439 --> 00:25:43,241
Now I want a Nintendo 64.

314
00:25:43,401 --> 00:25:44,302
Super Nintendo, no?

315
00:25:44,742 --> 00:25:45,503
Super Nintendo?

316
00:25:45,543 --> 00:25:47,125
That was a Nintendo 64.

317
00:25:47,145 --> 00:25:49,527
I don't even think you know what those are.

318
00:25:49,547 --> 00:25:51,669
Those are my type.

319
00:25:52,930 --> 00:25:56,013
A Nintendo 64, and I want the next one, the Wii, right?

320
00:25:56,073 --> 00:25:58,536
Then the Wii, and now there's something else.

321
00:25:58,756 --> 00:25:59,136
I don't know.

322
00:26:04,701 --> 00:26:05,983
All right.

323
00:26:06,003 --> 00:26:09,426
Always more and more food.

324
00:26:11,802 --> 00:26:12,583
entertainment.

325
00:26:16,648 --> 00:26:19,772
And he heard this, and he was, wow, incredible.

326
00:26:20,653 --> 00:26:21,193
How is it?

327
00:26:21,253 --> 00:26:30,164
They only have such a short lifespan, and they spend all their time just entertaining themselves.

328
00:26:30,184 --> 00:26:31,666
Unbelievable, these human beings.

329
00:26:35,330 --> 00:26:36,211
And they went back to playing.

330
00:26:37,453 --> 00:26:41,117
They went back to enjoying themselves, because we've got hundreds of thousands of years to live.

331
00:26:42,346 --> 00:26:43,267
We're not going to die.

332
00:26:43,287 --> 00:26:56,886
The Buddha said, I was just reading now, he said, when the lion comes out of its den in the evening, it yawns.

333
00:26:58,908 --> 00:27:05,357
And then it stretches itself, and then it roars.

334
00:27:05,377 --> 00:27:06,919
It latched forth.

335
00:27:10,274 --> 00:27:14,519
terrible roar that scares everyone.

336
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:35,621
It scares the humans, it scares the animals, all the birds fly up, even the elephants, the Buddha said, safe in the castle, even the king's elephants safe in the castle in their stalls will run around, will break out of their bonds and urinate and defecate and get all afraid when they hear the lion roar in the wilderness.

337
00:27:36,802 --> 00:27:39,505
That's how powerful is the lion's roar.

338
00:27:40,784 --> 00:27:42,789
Scares the willies out of everyone.

339
00:27:45,256 --> 00:27:56,987
The Buddha said in the same way, when the Buddha teaches the Dhamma, teaches the impermanence of all things, even the angels up in heaven get afraid.

340
00:28:01,253 --> 00:28:07,622
These angels who run around thinking they're at the top of the world, and they realize we too are subject to impermanence.

341
00:28:07,702 --> 00:28:09,505
We too are subject to decay.

342
00:28:10,286 --> 00:28:17,196
We too are a part of this sakkaya, the Buddha said, the sakkaya.

343
00:28:17,216 --> 00:28:29,134
And we also are a part of this formed existence that is not permanent, that is not stable, and is not eternal.

344
00:28:30,515 --> 00:28:33,579
Because angels forget this and humans forget this.

345
00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:35,041
I'm going to live forever.

346
00:28:37,464 --> 00:28:39,767
There was a song, I'm going to live forever.

347
00:28:39,807 --> 00:28:40,768
It's kind of stupid, no?

348
00:28:42,150 --> 00:28:44,133
Why would you sing such a thing, I'm going to live forever?

349
00:28:44,193 --> 00:28:45,835
Unless you were joking.

350
00:28:48,578 --> 00:28:50,501
Because we all know that we're not going to live forever.

351
00:28:52,684 --> 00:28:54,005
Yet we act like it sometimes.

352
00:28:55,487 --> 00:28:56,649
We don't ever think about this.

353
00:28:56,689 --> 00:28:59,172
So this angel, it's very interesting what he said, no?

354
00:28:59,590 --> 00:29:03,336
Why don't these humans think about this, considering how quickly days go by?

355
00:29:03,396 --> 00:29:06,221
You think a day is long.

356
00:29:06,241 --> 00:29:07,744
24 hours, that's a long time.

357
00:29:07,784 --> 00:29:09,747
But how many days have gone by?

358
00:29:09,767 --> 00:29:13,554
How quickly the days go by?

359
00:29:15,617 --> 00:29:17,701
You sit here and look at these weeks go by.

360
00:29:17,761 --> 00:29:20,285
Everyone comes back again every week, every week.

361
00:29:21,087 --> 00:29:21,868
Wow, how quickly.

362
00:29:26,489 --> 00:29:33,725
And yet we don't, well people in general don't, they never think, how many people would never think to practice meditation?

363
00:29:33,785 --> 00:29:35,750
Why are you wasting your time meditating?

364
00:29:36,812 --> 00:29:38,536
Go, enjoy your life, live forever.

365
00:29:38,576 --> 00:29:40,641
This is what they say.

366
00:29:43,147 --> 00:29:44,650
So then back down on earth.

367
00:29:46,165 --> 00:29:53,093
The monks found out about this woman dying and they said, wow, she was a really interesting woman, always respecting her husband.

368
00:29:53,113 --> 00:29:54,174
I wonder what that was about.

369
00:29:54,214 --> 00:29:55,356
Why?

370
00:29:55,556 --> 00:29:56,958
Her husband was just an ordinary guy.

371
00:29:56,998 --> 00:29:59,040
He wasn't really interested in good deeds himself.

372
00:30:01,443 --> 00:30:04,887
I wonder why she was worshiping him so much, always saying, this is for my husband.

373
00:30:04,907 --> 00:30:08,511
This is that I may be with my husband when I die and so on.

374
00:30:10,820 --> 00:30:13,204
And the Buddha heard what they were saying and said, what are you talking about?

375
00:30:13,224 --> 00:30:17,652
And they said, oh, we're just talking about Patipujika.

376
00:30:19,775 --> 00:30:22,179
How she really worshipped her husband.

377
00:30:23,061 --> 00:30:25,124
And he said, well, it wasn't her husband on earth.

378
00:30:25,405 --> 00:30:29,952
It was her husband that she just left a few hours earlier in heaven.

379
00:30:30,012 --> 00:30:32,957
And she wanted to go back and be with him.

380
00:30:34,139 --> 00:30:34,620
And why not?

381
00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:35,562
Because up in heaven.

382
00:30:35,622 --> 00:30:36,844
And he told them the story.

383
00:30:38,005 --> 00:30:40,028
And they said, a few hours?

384
00:30:41,110 --> 00:30:42,552
She was alive for 70 years.

385
00:30:42,872 --> 00:30:44,415
Is it really like that?

386
00:30:46,878 --> 00:30:49,703
One day up in heaven is 100 years on Earth.

387
00:30:53,028 --> 00:30:54,430
Something like that.

388
00:30:58,997 --> 00:30:59,618
It was interesting.

389
00:30:59,738 --> 00:31:06,949
I was talking about this earlier, how Einstein's theory of relativity

390
00:31:07,182 --> 00:31:13,770
The faster you go, the slower time goes.

391
00:31:15,251 --> 00:31:17,834
The point being that time is somehow relative.

392
00:31:18,315 --> 00:31:23,541
It's not what we're saying here, but there's this interesting thing where time isn't the same everywhere.

393
00:31:25,643 --> 00:31:31,270
What seems like a hundred years here is actually just a day up in heaven.

394
00:31:31,290 --> 00:31:36,936
There's another reason why someone asked about...

395
00:31:38,958 --> 00:31:39,559
Angels.

396
00:31:41,001 --> 00:31:42,102
Why you never see angels?

397
00:31:43,004 --> 00:31:44,245
Why do you never see angels?

398
00:31:44,265 --> 00:31:46,228
It's on this topic.

399
00:31:46,248 --> 00:31:50,694
First reason is because an angel can smell a human being a thousand leagues away.

400
00:31:52,156 --> 00:31:56,462
We smell really bad and angels won't come anywhere near us.

401
00:31:56,943 --> 00:31:57,744
It's true apparently.

402
00:31:57,824 --> 00:31:58,745
A thousand leagues.

403
00:31:58,805 --> 00:32:00,748
So if you're wondering, why don't I ever see angels?

404
00:32:02,030 --> 00:32:02,991
You need a shower.

405
00:32:07,831 --> 00:32:17,886
But the second, this is another reason, is that when people die, why don't they think of us and come back and say, hey, I'm up in heaven, do lots of good deeds and come up and be with me in heaven.

406
00:32:18,446 --> 00:32:19,588
It's so much fun up here.

407
00:32:19,648 --> 00:32:21,010
We get to play with flowers all day.

408
00:32:22,212 --> 00:32:23,373
Why doesn't anyone ever do that?

409
00:32:23,574 --> 00:32:25,096
Why don't you ever have people come back?

410
00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:30,183
Okay, well, suppose you die and you go up to heaven.

411
00:32:30,203 --> 00:32:31,425
What's the first thing you'd do?

412
00:32:32,587 --> 00:32:55,995
play right at least for one day come on you know you can always tomorrow you can always go and tell your your friends and family right and then what happens when you wake up the next day and say oh i gotta go tell my friends and family they're all dead that's the second reason why we don't ever have angels come and tell us about heaven

413
00:32:58,557 --> 00:33:05,395
By the time they think of it, it's probably for most people, it's not the first day, like, eh, next week.

414
00:33:05,415 --> 00:33:08,944
Go back and nuclear holocaust or something.

415
00:33:10,548 --> 00:33:13,075
Maybe I won't go back.

416
00:33:13,095 --> 00:33:13,917
Silly humans.

417
00:33:22,756 --> 00:33:24,078
So the monks said the same thing.

418
00:33:24,098 --> 00:33:26,162
They said, wow, it's amazing.

419
00:33:26,222 --> 00:33:37,300
And it's amazing that people don't realize this and don't actually take the time to do something useful with their lives.

420
00:33:37,861 --> 00:33:43,009
They die as useless as when they were born.

421
00:33:47,225 --> 00:33:49,047
So then the Buddha said, yes, this is true.

422
00:33:49,628 --> 00:33:59,419
People go to death chasing after, chasing after sensual pleasures, just like someone picking flowers.

423
00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:03,143
Just as though we were spending our whole lives picking flowers.

424
00:34:04,324 --> 00:34:05,225
Is that a useful life?

425
00:34:06,046 --> 00:34:07,408
Spend your whole life picking flowers?

426
00:34:11,332 --> 00:34:12,514
Huh?

427
00:34:12,534 --> 00:34:13,014
You're listening?

428
00:34:13,154 --> 00:34:13,755
You're listening?

429
00:34:16,182 --> 00:34:18,195
Is it a good life to pick flowers?

430
00:34:19,623 --> 00:34:22,159
You just spend your life picking flowers.

431
00:34:32,787 --> 00:34:35,510
Sensual pleasures are like picking flowers.

432
00:34:35,771 --> 00:34:39,255
I talked about this last time.

433
00:34:39,295 --> 00:34:47,326
There's something wrong with picking flowers, doesn't seem, but there's nothing useful to picking flowers.

434
00:34:50,309 --> 00:34:54,114
The main point is it doesn't change you.

435
00:34:55,616 --> 00:34:56,998
It doesn't make you happier.

436
00:34:57,038 --> 00:34:58,480
This is what we have to talk about.

437
00:34:58,860 --> 00:35:02,625
We have to understand what this phrase means, make you happier.

438
00:35:04,715 --> 00:35:06,777
We say, well, picking flowers makes me happy.

439
00:35:14,646 --> 00:35:19,592
Because it's our only understanding of happiness is sensual pleasure.

440
00:35:19,612 --> 00:35:24,258
We understand that that moment of pleasure is happiness.

441
00:35:26,460 --> 00:35:30,705
And we don't look and see what that happiness means, what the

442
00:35:31,934 --> 00:35:53,082
consequences of that of enjoying that happiness are it's not some horrendous thing where suddenly the sky falls but it creates addiction it creates attachment so you need you want and you need more to be happy

443
00:35:56,217 --> 00:36:00,943
So if anyone says it makes you happy, well, in what sense does it make you happy?

444
00:36:01,203 --> 00:36:03,906
If you're talking about that one moment, then okay, it makes you happy.

445
00:36:06,029 --> 00:36:07,410
We have to ask, does it make you happier?

446
00:36:09,272 --> 00:36:15,039
In the sense of, in general, do you become a happier person because of it?

447
00:36:15,860 --> 00:36:20,706
Is it something that makes you happier or makes you more peaceful?

448
00:36:22,205 --> 00:36:25,311
And we find that actually it doesn't even make you as happy as before.

449
00:36:25,331 --> 00:36:27,254
It doesn't even leave you as happy as before.

450
00:36:27,274 --> 00:36:31,322
It leaves you less happy, less satisfied.

451
00:36:37,032 --> 00:36:40,238
That's why when we sit here, we can't be happy.

452
00:36:40,278 --> 00:36:45,428
Not all the time anyway, because we're not happy.

453
00:36:47,365 --> 00:36:49,608
If picking flowers makes you happy, then we should try it.

454
00:36:49,628 --> 00:36:53,034
We can go out and pick flowers all day and then come back and sit in here and see how happy we are.

455
00:36:55,998 --> 00:36:58,281
We can be happy thinking about all those flowers we picked.

456
00:36:59,884 --> 00:37:07,876
But what if we had to sit here for an hour listening to someone drone on about angels and death and stuff?

457
00:37:07,896 --> 00:37:09,238
How happy would we be then?

458
00:37:22,769 --> 00:37:28,836
Just like someone picking flowers with a distracted mind.

459
00:37:30,898 --> 00:37:39,128
We go to death without ever finding, without ever becoming satisfied, unsatisfied with sensual pleasures.

460
00:37:41,831 --> 00:37:45,115
There are things on the other hand that do make us happier.

461
00:37:47,204 --> 00:37:58,896
that when we go out and do them, if we went outside and did these things, we would come back in here and sit down and we would find ourselves happier.

462
00:38:03,281 --> 00:38:16,975
So if we went and split the group up into two and half of us will go out and pick flowers and the other half will go out and give gifts to homeless people.

463
00:38:18,085 --> 00:38:24,799
Or go out and meditate.

464
00:38:25,220 --> 00:38:26,623
Practice meditation all day.

465
00:38:26,784 --> 00:38:27,385
Let's try that.

466
00:38:29,550 --> 00:38:31,454
How many people would volunteer for the meditation?

467
00:38:31,514 --> 00:38:31,975
I don't know.

468
00:38:32,015 --> 00:38:34,019
Most people are like, okay, flowers.

469
00:38:34,079 --> 00:38:34,861
I can come up for that.

470
00:38:36,565 --> 00:38:37,647
Just pick flowers all day.

471
00:38:39,213 --> 00:38:42,738
Because either way, you end up with a stiff back, picking flowers or meditating.

472
00:38:43,539 --> 00:38:45,381
But at least with flowers, you've got some flowers.

473
00:38:47,084 --> 00:38:56,517
The reason we're born as human beings is because we've conditioned ourselves to chase after sensual pleasure.

474
00:38:56,537 --> 00:39:05,389
The idea of meditating is somewhat repulsive to us because of our nature, because of what's led us to be born human.

475
00:39:07,310 --> 00:39:10,517
And yet, when we do meditate, it does make us happy.

476
00:39:11,199 --> 00:39:13,404
We do come back in here and we are at peace.

477
00:39:17,593 --> 00:39:18,195
Very difficult.

478
00:39:18,215 --> 00:39:22,645
The Buddha said it's very difficult to enjoy those things that actually make you happy.

479
00:39:22,685 --> 00:39:26,213
It's very difficult to enjoy solitude.

480
00:39:28,100 --> 00:39:30,423
Today I went back into the field.

481
00:39:30,443 --> 00:39:32,246
All the snow's gone for the first time.

482
00:39:32,266 --> 00:39:36,231
And so I walked all the way across the field behind our property.

483
00:39:37,734 --> 00:39:42,520
And I saw one of the trees had steps in it.

484
00:39:46,005 --> 00:39:47,007
Sounds magical, no?

485
00:39:48,389 --> 00:39:49,630
One of the trees had steps.

486
00:39:51,032 --> 00:39:51,853
What do you think that was?

487
00:39:55,318 --> 00:39:55,879
What was it?

488
00:39:57,918 --> 00:39:59,460
I don't know what it was.

489
00:40:02,143 --> 00:40:16,920
Well, in November, these wonderful humans that are so intent on doing good deeds go up into these trees and sit there and wait.

490
00:40:17,801 --> 00:40:20,224
They sit very still up in these trees.

491
00:40:21,465 --> 00:40:22,427
Sounds crazy, doesn't it?

492
00:40:23,147 --> 00:40:24,269
Think they're meditating up there?

493
00:40:25,430 --> 00:40:27,132
People do this in Canada.

494
00:40:27,517 --> 00:40:28,198
You never heard of this?

495
00:40:29,360 --> 00:40:29,561
No?

496
00:40:33,107 --> 00:40:36,833
And they go up and sit in these grown men, not children, this isn't a tree house.

497
00:40:39,017 --> 00:40:40,139
And you know what they bring with them?

498
00:40:41,281 --> 00:40:41,662
Guns.

499
00:40:46,711 --> 00:40:51,820
And they sit up in these trees and they shoot whatever moves.

500
00:40:53,487 --> 00:40:56,972
They get really drunk and I don't know what they do here in Ontario.

501
00:40:57,272 --> 00:41:00,477
They get so drunk that you're afraid to go out of your house.

502
00:41:00,497 --> 00:41:01,598
You have to wear something like this.

503
00:41:02,820 --> 00:41:04,262
This kind of looks like a deer, I don't know.

504
00:41:07,146 --> 00:41:09,830
It's the only time those bright, bright orange robes are any good.

505
00:41:09,850 --> 00:41:12,433
The ones they wear in Bangkok may be good during that time.

506
00:41:15,277 --> 00:41:17,320
Maybe I'll have to get some for that period here.

507
00:41:17,661 --> 00:41:19,984
Because right behind us we've got two of them.

508
00:41:20,791 --> 00:41:23,414
One's on our side and the other's on the other side.

509
00:41:25,657 --> 00:41:26,758
So I went up in one of them.

510
00:41:27,519 --> 00:41:28,260
I didn't bring a gun.

511
00:41:30,983 --> 00:41:33,646
And I was way up in the trees and practiced meditation.

512
00:41:34,567 --> 00:41:37,971
I've done that before in my house, because I used to hunt when I was young.

513
00:41:39,273 --> 00:41:42,276
And then to make up for it, I decided to go up and meditate in the tree.

514
00:41:43,589 --> 00:41:51,451
to give my apologies to the deer and to the forest.

515
00:41:54,579 --> 00:41:58,510
So I went and did that now and practiced meditation there.

516
00:42:04,075 --> 00:42:06,239
It's amazing that we can't find happiness doing that.

517
00:42:07,581 --> 00:42:24,953
Sitting on a tree, nothing, no worries, no cares, no wants, no burdens besides having to come back and tell a story to some people, nice people.

518
00:42:30,653 --> 00:42:34,482
So this is a call to arms, so to speak.

519
00:42:34,582 --> 00:42:39,575
This verse, it's a reminder that we don't have so much time to live.

520
00:42:39,795 --> 00:42:43,083
Our lives are not near as long as we think.

521
00:42:47,293 --> 00:42:48,055
And if we're not

522
00:42:51,275 --> 00:43:00,467
If we don't take the time to, if we don't spend our time wisely, we'll die never being satisfied.

523
00:43:01,248 --> 00:43:04,833
We'll die never having satisfied our desires, never having found contentment.

524
00:43:06,014 --> 00:43:08,497
Death will take us under its control.

525
00:43:10,120 --> 00:43:13,924
So meditation is for the purpose of changing this, changing our conditioning.

526
00:43:15,286 --> 00:43:19,712
Changing our conditioning from being bored when there's nothing pleasant,

527
00:43:20,975 --> 00:43:29,690
Being satisfied no matter what is pleasant, being content no matter what we get, whether we get nothing at all, even if we get nothing at all.

528
00:43:34,578 --> 00:43:43,793
It's amazing, you know, when you study the Buddha's teaching and then you look and you see how unsatisfied we are just sitting here, how unpleasant it is.

529
00:43:47,435 --> 00:43:49,638
We're just in this room together, really, you see.

530
00:43:50,019 --> 00:43:56,327
And even if I'm talking about good things, I can only keep your attention for so long before wandering back to something more pleasant.

531
00:44:00,453 --> 00:44:03,657
This is the state that we're in.

532
00:44:04,358 --> 00:44:05,680
This is what we have to look at.

533
00:44:05,720 --> 00:44:08,424
We can't even be here, happy.

534
00:44:09,525 --> 00:44:10,286
We need something.

535
00:44:10,747 --> 00:44:11,468
And we think right away.

536
00:44:11,488 --> 00:44:12,690
You think, what are you, crazy?

537
00:44:12,750 --> 00:44:14,472
If I want to be happy, I need my Xbox.

538
00:44:15,346 --> 00:44:16,788
I need my Game Boy.

539
00:44:16,808 --> 00:44:17,689
Do you still have Game Boy?

540
00:44:19,431 --> 00:44:24,777
No, it's old, no?

541
00:44:24,797 --> 00:44:25,819
I need my computer.

542
00:44:25,939 --> 00:44:30,824
I need my Walkman to listen to music.

543
00:44:32,827 --> 00:44:35,850
I know some kids who just always have their music on.

544
00:44:40,156 --> 00:44:41,337
Take that out of your ear.

545
00:44:44,337 --> 00:44:47,180
Some kids, you know.

546
00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:50,204
This one kid, he would follow me on alms round in Los Angeles.

547
00:44:50,504 --> 00:44:51,726
He always had this in his ear.

548
00:44:59,755 --> 00:45:01,137
How could you be happy without that?

549
00:45:01,177 --> 00:45:04,981
How could I expect you to find happiness?

550
00:45:05,322 --> 00:45:08,766
Everyone should put these things in their ears and then they'll be happy, right?

551
00:45:09,867 --> 00:45:11,509
And you wouldn't have to listen to me anyway.

552
00:45:13,160 --> 00:45:14,283
No, you won't be happy.

553
00:45:15,886 --> 00:45:17,129
He's very unhappy, this boy.

554
00:45:17,490 --> 00:45:18,272
It's a good example.

555
00:45:19,555 --> 00:45:21,099
Oh, you can see how miserable he was.

556
00:45:23,645 --> 00:45:24,928
Like a drug addict.

557
00:45:26,070 --> 00:45:27,253
And they couldn't

558
00:45:27,554 --> 00:45:29,357
At home, he was useless.

559
00:45:29,577 --> 00:45:30,659
He wouldn't do anything.

560
00:45:30,939 --> 00:45:32,321
He wouldn't do his schoolwork.

561
00:45:32,341 --> 00:45:33,543
He wouldn't do his chores.

562
00:45:33,643 --> 00:45:35,285
He has no respect for his parents.

563
00:45:35,746 --> 00:45:37,088
So they sent him away to Thailand.

564
00:45:37,589 --> 00:45:39,612
And I was in Thailand when he was there this last year.

565
00:45:40,633 --> 00:45:42,776
Julian's here, this kid from Los Angeles.

566
00:45:42,957 --> 00:45:44,359
I don't suppose he'll be watching this.

567
00:45:45,881 --> 00:45:48,485
And they said, oh, well, bring him to come and bring him to meditate with me.

568
00:45:48,625 --> 00:45:49,546
Oh, we can't take him.

569
00:45:49,927 --> 00:45:50,828
It's just...

570
00:45:50,808 --> 00:45:55,476
totally useless and disrespectful and just sits around and does nothing.

571
00:45:56,117 --> 00:45:57,218
I'll send him up here to meditate.

572
00:45:57,238 --> 00:45:58,881
No, we're sending him back to Los Angeles.

573
00:46:00,764 --> 00:46:01,105
Nothing.

574
00:46:01,165 --> 00:46:02,727
No one could handle him.

575
00:46:04,009 --> 00:46:05,792
You think this is what we get?

576
00:46:05,852 --> 00:46:06,894
This is the result?

577
00:46:08,216 --> 00:46:16,389
This is why we're stuffing our ears with these overpriced gadgets?

578
00:46:16,409 --> 00:46:18,132
Ask yourself, why are you here?

579
00:46:20,727 --> 00:46:22,049
Don't ask Steve Jobs.

580
00:46:22,129 --> 00:46:23,190
He doesn't have the answer.

581
00:46:27,375 --> 00:46:28,517
He wasn't Buddhist.

582
00:46:28,677 --> 00:46:29,338
I don't believe it.

583
00:46:31,420 --> 00:46:33,583
Anyone who says that doesn't understand Buddhism.

584
00:46:35,926 --> 00:46:37,267
I'm a little bit biased.

585
00:46:37,287 --> 00:46:39,010
I guess he was a nice guy to his family.

586
00:46:40,191 --> 00:46:41,412
But I don't mean Steve Jobs.

587
00:46:41,432 --> 00:46:43,495
I mean that whole culture of buy, get.

588
00:46:44,673 --> 00:47:09,465
oh push button it's like this is what we've this is what the pinnacle of the human race is to push a button a single button it only has one button I've seen them I mean come on I thought it was like oh look I've got a keyboard it's got 128 keys that's cool I've got a button touch screen

589
00:47:10,964 --> 00:47:12,447
You've got these talking cats.

590
00:47:13,729 --> 00:47:14,711
It talks back to you.

591
00:47:15,552 --> 00:47:16,053
I've seen them.

592
00:47:16,814 --> 00:47:17,476
Cutting fruit.

593
00:47:17,716 --> 00:47:19,079
There's something about cutting fruit.

594
00:47:19,099 --> 00:47:24,548
Isn't that like enlightenment?

595
00:47:24,648 --> 00:47:25,730
That's like, wow.

596
00:47:26,412 --> 00:47:28,555
This is where the human race is going, right?

597
00:47:28,636 --> 00:47:29,457
This is evolution.

598
00:47:30,359 --> 00:47:31,040
Fruit ninja.

599
00:47:32,402 --> 00:47:32,983
Angry birds.

600
00:47:34,386 --> 00:47:35,588
Some angry birds.

601
00:47:38,082 --> 00:47:40,926
This is what life is all about, right?

602
00:47:42,108 --> 00:47:43,750
No, we call these things past times.

603
00:47:45,152 --> 00:47:46,874
That's what entertainment means, right?

604
00:47:47,676 --> 00:47:48,717
Enter means in between.

605
00:47:48,937 --> 00:47:49,799
Entre temps.

606
00:47:51,040 --> 00:47:51,721
Entre temps.

607
00:47:52,282 --> 00:47:52,843
Entertain.

608
00:47:52,943 --> 00:47:54,325
Tain comes from time, I guess.

609
00:47:54,385 --> 00:47:55,066
It's from French.

610
00:47:55,186 --> 00:47:55,627
So French.

611
00:47:55,747 --> 00:47:56,949
Entre temps.

612
00:47:56,969 --> 00:47:58,551
Which means between times.

613
00:47:58,852 --> 00:47:59,853
When you're not doing anything.

614
00:48:00,654 --> 00:48:01,756
When you're waiting for something.

615
00:48:02,276 --> 00:48:03,538
Angry bird.

616
00:48:04,840 --> 00:48:05,541
Push the button.

617
00:48:07,681 --> 00:48:08,302
Past time.

618
00:48:08,502 --> 00:48:09,904
Because we've got too much time, right?

619
00:48:12,108 --> 00:48:13,370
No, we don't have enough time.

620
00:48:13,430 --> 00:48:14,732
Think of what the angels are doing.

621
00:48:14,852 --> 00:48:16,294
What are you doing down there?

622
00:48:16,314 --> 00:48:24,487
We smell so bad, they don't want to come and tell us, but they're like, I feel sorry for those guys.

623
00:48:27,612 --> 00:48:30,917
There's angels right up in heaven right now thinking about us, how stupid we are.

624
00:48:31,738 --> 00:48:34,903
How much we're wasting our time playing Fruit Ninja.

625
00:48:38,545 --> 00:48:39,206
Think about that.

626
00:48:40,969 --> 00:48:47,077
Don't you have something better to do with your life than become addicted to meaningless activities?

627
00:48:48,560 --> 00:48:49,301
Apparently not.

628
00:48:50,943 --> 00:48:51,604
It's not easy.

629
00:48:51,844 --> 00:48:53,287
I'm not trying to make light of this.

630
00:48:53,367 --> 00:48:54,568
This is a very difficult thing.

631
00:48:54,588 --> 00:48:55,470
We've been conditioned.

632
00:48:55,510 --> 00:48:57,373
We've conditioned ourselves into this.

633
00:48:58,314 --> 00:48:59,976
And everything conditions us.

634
00:49:00,757 --> 00:49:02,720
The television, advertisement, society.

635
00:49:03,842 --> 00:49:04,643
My friends have one.

636
00:49:04,683 --> 00:49:05,364
I gotta get one.

637
00:49:05,404 --> 00:49:06,306
My friends do that.

638
00:49:06,326 --> 00:49:07,287
I should do that.

639
00:49:08,853 --> 00:49:10,675
Well, if your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?

640
00:49:10,695 --> 00:49:14,560
No, I heard a reply to that.

641
00:49:15,001 --> 00:49:15,781
The answer is yes.

642
00:49:17,664 --> 00:49:18,044
Yes?

643
00:49:18,265 --> 00:49:20,307
Well, yes, because all my friends are quite smart.

644
00:49:20,487 --> 00:49:24,592
I mean, if all of you jumped off a bridge, I think there must be a very good reason for jumping off the bridge.

645
00:49:24,652 --> 00:49:25,433
Maybe there's a fire.

646
00:49:25,493 --> 00:49:26,635
Maybe there's an explosion.

647
00:49:26,715 --> 00:49:28,037
I should jump off the bridge with you.

648
00:49:29,919 --> 00:49:31,441
Just make sure you've got smart friends.

649
00:49:33,824 --> 00:49:34,785
That's really the problem.

650
00:49:35,626 --> 00:49:37,408
We lead each other in the wrong direction.

651
00:49:38,435 --> 00:49:42,743
It's an interesting reply, because if we have good friends, we'll lead each other in the right direction.

652
00:49:42,783 --> 00:49:43,565
That's why we're here.

653
00:49:44,727 --> 00:49:49,416
So if I jumped off a bridge, you might think, hmm, maybe there's a reason for jumping off the bridge.

654
00:49:50,338 --> 00:49:51,921
I think that monk's gone crazy.

655
00:49:55,040 --> 00:49:59,225
But when you hang out with good people, then they lead you in good places.

656
00:49:59,726 --> 00:50:02,269
You get to hear good stories and good teachings.

657
00:50:03,390 --> 00:50:04,772
And you get to practice good things.

658
00:50:06,173 --> 00:50:13,242
So now we've heard good things, we've heard good Dhamma, so next up is to practice good things.

659
00:50:13,983 --> 00:50:18,128
So we'll try to put this into practice and spend some time learning about ourselves.

660
00:50:18,188 --> 00:50:19,449
Try to find your suffering.

661
00:50:20,170 --> 00:50:21,672
Try to fight with your suffering.

662
00:50:21,652 --> 00:50:24,075
Like Darth Vader.

663
00:50:24,635 --> 00:50:26,577
Obi-Wan Kenobi fighting with Darth Vader.

664
00:50:28,079 --> 00:50:29,801
Fight with your suffering.

665
00:50:30,502 --> 00:50:31,723
Don't let it overpower you.

666
00:50:34,546 --> 00:50:37,369
That was the most powerful line in all those movies.

667
00:50:37,410 --> 00:50:39,872
I only saw the first, the original three.

668
00:50:42,235 --> 00:50:42,976
And the first one.

669
00:50:45,218 --> 00:50:47,701
He says, you can't win.

670
00:50:47,761 --> 00:50:49,583
If you kill me, you'll only make me stronger.

671
00:50:51,267 --> 00:50:53,810
He says to Darth Vader, did you ever see the first Star Wars?

672
00:50:56,634 --> 00:50:59,558
He says, he's fighting with Darth, you know Darth Vader?

673
00:50:59,598 --> 00:51:03,523
Obi-Wan Kenobi is fighting with him and he says, you can't win, Darth.

674
00:51:03,543 --> 00:51:09,852
If you kill me, you'll only make me stronger than you can ever imagine or something like that.

675
00:51:09,872 --> 00:51:11,995
And that describes an enlightened being.

676
00:51:12,496 --> 00:51:14,038
An enlightened being isn't afraid of death.

677
00:51:14,979 --> 00:51:15,540
You can't win.

678
00:51:15,600 --> 00:51:17,222
This is exactly it.

679
00:51:17,402 --> 00:51:18,844
Antakau kurute warang.

680
00:51:20,140 --> 00:51:21,424
Antako means the ender.

681
00:51:21,886 --> 00:51:24,916
It's just a word that means ender, which means the one who puts an end to life.

682
00:51:25,156 --> 00:51:30,454
So it's death or the king of death or something that's personified death.

683
00:51:31,979 --> 00:51:33,323
It brings them under their power.

684
00:51:35,193 --> 00:51:40,301
But for a person who is free from attachment, they don't go under the power of death.

685
00:51:40,361 --> 00:51:44,648
Death only leads them up, like this woman who had done so many good deeds.

686
00:51:45,129 --> 00:51:46,832
Death was what she was waiting for.

687
00:51:46,912 --> 00:51:48,815
She wouldn't kill herself.

688
00:51:48,855 --> 00:51:49,476
That's not good.

689
00:51:49,737 --> 00:51:51,379
If you kill yourself, that's a negative thing.

690
00:51:51,399 --> 00:51:53,823
That's an attachment.

691
00:51:54,344 --> 00:52:01,656
So she just did as much good, got her mind so free from desire, free from any clinging, that she soared up to heaven.

692
00:52:02,834 --> 00:52:30,799
like on a horse for such people they're not afraid of death and death can't kill them death can't bring them under its power so that's the story for tonight that's the teaching for tonight let's try to study ourselves and find some happiness find out what really makes us happy it's not this okay thank you for tuning in